


Cosmic Event

by Toshua



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Camping, M/M, Star Gazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-03
Updated: 2013-02-03
Packaged: 2017-11-28 02:05:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/669018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toshua/pseuds/Toshua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A special night of stargazing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cosmic Event

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 852 Prospect in 1997

"Don't you trust me?" 

"Chief, that is a dumb question. I'm just not sure if I should trust you right now." Jim stirred the fire, added another piece of firewood. 

"I promise you'll love it. It's not embarrassing, life threatening or overly emotional. But you've got to come with me to see it." Blair bounced around the campsite. 

"Can't it wait until morning? The fire is warm and I'm tired." 

"No, it won't wait. Trust me, Jim. If you don't like it, you can -," Blair stopped, lost for words. "We can figure out a suitable punishment later. Just come on." Blair reached for his partner's hand, pulled the bigger man away from the log he was using for a seat. 

"All right, all right." Jim banked the fire carefully, rolling the blazing logs deeper into the stone fire ring, while Blair bounced impatiently. Jim took in his friend's excited appearance. "What's got into you tonight, Chief?" 

"You'll see." Sandburg grabbed Jim's arm and almost pulled him toward the gravel path. Jim hung back for a second, then increased his stride to match his roommate, finally placing an arm over the small shoulders. 

The gravel trail was barely visible under the almost full moon's light. It wound up the hill, in and out of the trees and finally disappeared into a moss and grass covered mound at the top of the cliff. The wind had swept the area clear of snow even though spring was weeks off in the mountains. Winter silence still held the land. 

The two men stopped in the moonlight. The silver light gilded the little clearing, picking up the ice that hid in the cracks of the boulders, outlining the bare branches of willow and birch trees. Here and there a patch of snow that had escaped the wind nestled in rock shadows, reflecting the moon. Their shadows were short on the dry frozen moss. 

Beyond the mound, the cliff dropped away and the valley lay below them, lit with the moonlight and an occasional yellow glow from a building or the headlights of a car as it wound through the switchback road. 

Jim took in the silver scene, the mystical peacefulness of the moonlit glade. "Chief, this is beautiful. When did you find this?" 

"You haven't seen anything yet." Blair took his friend's gloved hand, led him around to a large boulder that formed a natural backrest. Draped on the frozen ground was a space blanket covered with a heavy quilted sleeping bag and wool blankets. Jim looked at the nest of blankets, back to his partner. Long hair that had escaped the stocking cap caught the silver moonlight and for a moment, he was a fantasy elf, appearing out of the darkness to tantalize the cop. 

"Come on Big Guy. Get comfortable." 

"You've gone to an awful lot of trouble. What's the occasion?" Jim settled down on the sleeping bag and Blair nestled in between the long legs, pulling a heavy wool blanket over them as Jim leaned back against the flat side of the boulder. 

"If you're going to stargaze, you might as well be comfortable." The younger man grinned at his companion. Jim's long face was lined in the silver light, his eyes just shadows above the high cheekbones. His eyebrows were frosted lightly with his frozen breath. Jim slid his arms around his companion, pulled Blair to this chest. 

"You did all this to convince me to stargaze with you?" He nestled his nose into the long hair, smelled the shampoo that the young man used, exhaled on the warm skin and felt the goose bumps rise across Blair's neck and shoulders. 

"Jim," Blair whispered, "look up." 

Jim pulled his face out of the chestnut curls, turned his face to the sky..and froze. "Chief?!" 

They were silent as the comet arced across the sky. Words didn't work to describe its beauty; was it a pile of stars, clustered together, with a tail? or a snowball, falling, disintegrating as it fell toward earth? The head of the comet was big, and the tail swept across the sky, dim enough to see stars through it, bright enough to follow until it disappeared into the darkness. 

"It's called Comet Hale-Bopp. You're seeing something that hasn't been seen in over 2000 years." Blair's voice whispered, his eyes on the fuzzy visitor from deep space. "Think of where it's been. The stories it could tell." 

"I've never seen a comet before." Jim's voice was as hushed as his partner's. "It's beautiful." Jim stretched out his senses, wanting to touch it. 

Blair felt the yearning in his companion and understood it completely. "Here." He pulled a pair of binoculars out of his jacket pocket. "These really help." 

Jim took off his gloves and focused on the sky, finding the comet and zooming in on it. He watched it a long time, before pulling the binoculars from his eyes and giving them back to his partner. He hugged Blair tight to him. "Thank you, Chief. This is incredible. I never expected such a gift!" 

"Wait, we're not done yet." Blair twisted around, studied the moon for a moment, then tracked away from it, until he found a dim red star. He pointed. "That's Mars. It's the closest it will come to Earth for the rest of the century." He watched as Jim studied the tiny red light, first without the binoculars, then with. 

"I can almost see that it's a planet." 

"You could if we had a small telescope, but I couldn't figure out how to get one up here without you being suspicious." 

"This is incredible. I never took the time to look at the stars. You know they there, but with city lights, you never really see them." He handed the eyepiece back to Blair, pulled his gloves on and snuggled into his partner's back. Blair leaned against him, absorbing the warmth, tucking the blankets around them, even as his eyes turned back to the heavens. 

"That's why I fussed until you agreed to go camping this weekend. The sky's full of wonderful things right now. The comet, Mars, full moon, there's even a lunar eclipse this weekend. I brought a constellation map with me, if you're interested. And a red filtered flashlight so it won't kill my nightvision. I know you won't have a problem, but I need it." 

"Sure. Let's see it." 

Blair pulled the circle map out of his inside pocket, along with a penlight that glowed red. He turned the outer wheel until the star maps matched what he was looking at. "There's the Big Dipper, you recognize that one." Blair pointed toward the cup." 

Jim studied the star drawing, imaging what the ancients that named the figures in the sky, were thinking. The ancient Sentinels, and their Guides, watching from a hill over a tribe, entertaining themselves by making pictures out of the stars. He felt connected suddenly, to a history that was almost as old as the planet, as old as the comet above them. A cold draft filtered in under the blanket. "You're letting the heat out." 

"Oh, sorry." Blair pulled the blanket higher. "Better?" 

Jim still had his face to the sky and he was feeling very small. "Hey, Chief. Do you think that 2000 years ago, a Sentinel watched this comet with his Guide?" He whispered. "Do you think they were awed by the sight? Or afraid?" 

"Probably a little afraid. Comets were always the harbingers of terrible things to come." A cold shiver ran down his spine. Would he have been afraid 2000 years ago when a messenger appeared in the sky? 

"Do you think they would have made camp, and made love under it? An offering to the gods, so to speak?" 

Blair shivered again, but not from cold and he dropped his head back to Jim's chest. Jim responded by brushing aside the long hair and nibbling on an earlobe, his tongue circling the tiny earring. "I want to make love to you." 

"You talking about making a cosmic event unforgettable." Blair whispered into the darkness before Jim turned his head and captured his mouth. The lips were cold but they warmed immediately and all Blair could do was moan. 

"Doesn't something that occurs every 2000 years deserve some sort of celebration?" Jim pulled Blair's stocking cap off and locked his fingers in the brown hair. "I think it does." Jim's voice had dropped to a husky whisper as he licked down the long neck, pulled the heavy coat away from Blair's throat and nibbled the pulse point. 

"Slide down." Jim slid them into the blankets, pulling Blair's coat off as he went deeper into the nest. Blair was unzipping Jim's jacket, tugging it off, hands sliding under the heavy turtleneck, rubbing and caressing. Jim chuckled into Blair's mouth, his own hands finding the fur covered chest and hard nipples. "You feel so good, Chief. So warm." 

"Jim." Blair was groaning at every touch, pulling Jim on top of him, pulling the blankets over them. "Love you." The words dissolved into gasps and incoherent sounds as Jim found Blair's belt and unbuckled it, followed by the waist of his jeans. The big cop lifted up enough to pull his partner's coat and sweater all the way off, tossing them under the sleeping bag. 

Blair grabbed the back of Jim's sweater, yanked it loose from his jeans, forced it over Jim's head, added it to the jacket and his clothes in the sleeping bag. He bit Jim's neck hard, then suckled the bite mark. Jim groaned. "I need you baby. Raise up." His hands were pulling at Blair's jeans, sliding them down the slender hips. 

Finally, it was skin on skin and they rolled and tumbled on the sleeping bag, hands stroking and rubbing. Jim pulled Blair on top of him, hands gripping the younger man's ass and kneading the tight flesh. Their mouths locked together, sharing breaths, sucking on each other's tongue. Blair reached between them, found their erections and squeezed them together as he rocked against Jim's stomach. 

Jim wrapped his legs around his partner and urged him on, holding Blair tight against him and whispering into the long hair. "Yes, yes. Loveyouneed youwant you." 

Blair arched against the bigger man and screamed his love to his partner. Jim matched the cries and thrust hard against the flat warm flesh, and exploded. 

Afterwards, they lay in the blankets, Blair nestled into Jim's embrace, eyes closed. He'd been to heaven and back with the man holding him. "Jim, love you." 

Jim hugged his partner tighter. "Thank you." he whispered, finally opening his eyes, seeing the miracle that was overhead, and in his embrace. He tucked the blankets closer around them. "Love you." 

They dozed for awhile, until the cold finally began to seep into the blankets and the hard ground began to be a problem. Jim finally moved, easing his arm from under Blair, shaking his hand to get the feeling back. "Hey, Chief. We need to get back to our camp. It's getting cold." 

"Mmm, okay." Blair yawned. He'd been so warm next to his human furnace, he didn't want to move. "Where are our clothes?" Blair rolled onto his back, exhaling, watching his breath form a cloud. Jim was right, it was cold. 

"Under us. Kept them warm." Jim felt around pulling out jeans, shirts, jackets. In the dark, getting dressed was an adventure. Jim tried pulling a sweater over his head, felt the seams rip and traded with his smaller partner. He heard Blair laugh. 

"What's so funny?" 

"Good thing nobody can see us. Wonder if anything we're putting on is wrong side out?" 

Jim shrugged. "Doesn't matter." He found his boots next to the rock, pulled them on then helped Blair roll up the blankets and sleeping bag. He took Blair's hand as they started back down the trail, leading his partner in the darkness. Jim glanced back at the sky. The blaze of the Milky Way cut across the heavens and he stopped to mentally record the sight. Then he pulled his companion into his arms. "Thank you.  
  


* * *

The End


End file.
